Posted on 08/31/2013 6:26:30 AM PDT by Hoodat
An Ohio man who had his kidney surgically removed to save his sister's life, only to see it accidentally thrown out by a nurse, said he lay "in a lot of pain" unable to help.
His sister Sarah Fudacz thought she was being given the gift of life as hospital staff wheeled her into surgery last August at the University of Toledo Medical Center, she told "Good Morning America" today.
Instead, she woke up to a nightmare: A kidney that was a perfect match was in the trash.
"Somebody wasted part of my brother," Sarah Fudacz, who was 24 at the time, said.
"I knew something had gone wrong as soon as I was being led out of surgery, because I lifted up my shirt and there was no incision," she said today on her 25th birthday.
"I thought this was going to be the end of it and I'd finally start feeling better," she said. "I remember just asking over and over again, what happened?"
Paul Fudacz, 21, was also shocked to learn of the accident. "What really made it clear to me was seeing my sister walking around fine, and I'm laying in bed in a lot of pain."
The siblings, their parents and four other brothers and a sister have filed a lawsuit against the UTMC, which this week denied all allegations of medical negligence.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
And that to me is the purpose of medical insurance. I couldn't work the rest of my life to pay for a liver transplant. Yet my insurance premiums are going through the roof - not because of liver transplants, but because of idiots going to the emergency room because they have the flu.
Say that when someone you love needs a replacement organ, finds it after a lengthy search, only to have a nurse throw it in the trash out of baffling negligence.
please are you freaking kidding me? The dude underwent major surgery for nothing and is now permanently at risk for problems because he is short a kidney and you think there is no law suit? There own employee admits she foked up and pitched it? This hospital either has an extremely myopic general counsel or the hospital administration is terminable stupid. They are going to get hammered.
I know someone who gave a kidney to save his wife’s life.
I’d hate to her what he would say if they had done this to him.
The hospital didn’t *arrange* for a replacement kidney. She remained on the UNOS waiting list. Arranging for a kidney is what the brother did.
The hospital deserves absolutely everything coming to them.
Maybe the stupid nurse has been dipping into the medicine cabinet. If you are stupid drugs make you even stupider.
I know. All hospitals should be driven out of business if they are not perfect.
This story is a classic example of what is happening to medicine as a result of nurse and hospital staff unionization. Instead of being focused on the patients, their organs, or grafts during surgery they are worried about getting their f***ing breaks. The scrub techs don’t stay through the whole case so the nurses are walking in and out of the operating room to get a break and the kidney in the basin and the Patient on the table is secondary . Since there was no communication between the unionized nurses they threw out the bucket of ice slush with the kidney. The nurses involved with the case should have their license pulled. Physicians and Surgeons can no longer reprimand nurses , it is against the union rules.
Products of our failed educational system are integrating into the work place...get used to it.
Hospitals are the most dangerous place in America.
Similar to public schools; where the staff is more concerned with the union than the children.
I’m with you. The psychological torture of this all? Absolutely. Someone SHOULD be shot for this as a reminder of why it’s so bloody important to follow all the rules and do things right!
I can hear your sarcasm from way over hear. I don’t think anyone is advocating perfection. Mistakes are often made. Having said that:
A viable kidney was thrown in the trash. Once the mistake was realized, the ischemia to the kidney was beyond repair.
A healthy male was left without a renal safety net. While the initial choice to drop the net was his, his choice was that it be given to his sister, not thrown away.
A young lady who had a perfect sibling match for direct kidney donation remained on the UNOS list for a potentially less ideal match. (Surely you must know that sibling matches are ALWAYS the best choice for matches, even down to bone marrow).
The hospital denies culpability.
And they don’t have a lawsuit???
*here
When you do not know what you are talking about, best to keep your mouth shut.
As someone who lives with one kidney, I am fully aware of the fact that while I am alive, my one kidney cannot function as effectively as two kidneys. That fact is reflected in my renal function blood tests over the past 20 years. Her brother’s life has been significantly impacted by his donation of a kidney.
Plus, she will have far more challenges living with the kidney she ended up receiving rather than her brother’s kidney which would have been a perfect or near-perfect match.
As to the hospital, the fact that the administration is not willing to make a settlement is a reflection on their lack of morality. In my opinion, they were grossly negligent in this matter and should have been proactive in reaching a reasonable settlement.
Even having to undergo anaesthetics without justification is harm, especially to the elderly.
You’re going to start seeing hospitals go under, particularly smaller hospitals in bluer democrat (and lawyer) dominated states. One thing I
Am going to enjoy is watching these marginal lawyers start to go without medical care. As I often say here, schadenfreude may be the only pleasure left.
The story at the link says she got a kidney.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.